ARTS

6:24 pm

Tue June 17, 2014

Artist Chip Thomas Installs Photo Mural In Hotchkiss

Artist Chip Thomas installed a photo mural of a young Hopi girl on the back of the Church of Art in Hotchkiss.

Credit Mary Hockenbery

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A small group of people recently gathered outside on a sunny afternoon to look at a new mural on the west side of the Church of Art in Hotchkiss.

"It's so unusual and so well done," Cheryl Day said while looking at the image. "I don't even know how they did it."

The mural is actually a black and white photograph of Mezli Hill, a young Hopi girl. In the picture she has her hair in two braids and is wearing a white dress and white stockings along with a pair of black and white Converse high-tops. The photo shows Mezli working in her family’s corn field on the reservation in Arizona.

"I don't even know how [Thomas] got it onto the wall and how he got it to fit exactly," Chris Allen said when discussing the piece of street art. "It wowed me."

Mary Hockenbery, a photographer, owns the Church of Art, a creative space and gallery, where the mural can be found. She contacted Thomas after seeing his work four years ago.

Mary Hockenbery and Chip Thomas in front of the mural on the Church of Art.

Credit Mary Hockenbery

“I first saw Chip Thomas’ work when I was driving across the reservation in 2010," she said. "It made me pull a fast u-ey at 65 miles per hour."

Thomas is a photographer, street artist and physician who lives and works on the Navajo Nation. His work can be seen from the road on structures across the reservation in Northern Arizona.

To create a mural Thomas first takes a digital image and then scales it in Photoshop to fit on a structure. He prints out the image in large panels and then places it on his canvas which could be anything from an abandoned building to a roadside stall.

Hockenbery said the first Thomas piece she was saw was of a Navajo grandfather on the side of an abandoned gas station.

"The next one I saw was of three code talkers probably in there 70’s or 80’s in their uniforms, maybe in parade formation," she said. "I’m not really sure, but they were cutouts and they were put on one of those roadside stands. And, honestly it looked to me like they were walking out of the desert into some other dimension."

Hockenbery started following Thomas’ work on social media and corresponding with him via email.

In 2013 Hockenbery bought an old church with the intention of turning it into a studio and arts space. She originally wanted to visit Thomas on the reservation, but instead last fall invited him to showcase or give a workshop at the Church of Art

“I sent him a picture of the west face of the church not consciously asking for him to do something but just to show him because I love the building so much," she said. "And he sent it back with the picture of Mezil on it and I was bowled over. I just couldn’t believe that could happen.”

Thomas traveled to the North Fork Valley in early June and installed the mural in two days with the help of an assistant.

Chip Thomas installing a photo mural on the Church of Art.

Credit Mary Hockenbery

"I think [the mural] fits the space nicely not just the composition of the piece but the theme of the piece I think matches the space where it was installed," Thomas said. "[And with] the opportunity to install in a church, one has to acknowledge the space where you’re installing and the reverence that goes with that space. I think my piece speaks to that reverence in that it addresses the theme of nurturance and taking care of the land."

Hockenbery said the theme of nurturing in the mural also relates to the agriculture tradition in the North Fork Valley.

“Another thing that was important to me about this that I shared with Chip in our original writing was that I’ve heard people through the years say they wish that there was art that referred to the Utes that lived here," she said. "Although this young woman is not a Ute to me it was referring to the first inhabitants.”

Thomas has installed photo murals across the United States. He said when he usually puts up a mural in a location he tries to use an image from that area.

“I do like the idea though [that] the image in Hotchkiss is of a Native American girl and hopefully it will sensitize people in some degree to issues happening with native populations in the Southwest.”

In Hockenbery’s opinion, Thomas has mastered the zone system and the mural showcases his mastery of the technique used famously by American photograph Ansel Adams.

"From the darkest shadows to the brightest lights you have detail and you don’t have blocky places like a big white burnout," she said. "You can read information in every tonal range that’s the zone system. When you look at this mural even in the shadows you can see little details of what was on the ground there."

The mural is made of thin paper and preserved with acrylic meaning the image is temporary and might last for two years.